Telephonic communications are pervasive throughout modern society. Access to, and the ready availability to communicate by way of, a communication network that provides for telephonic communications is a practical necessity for many. Both voice, and non-voice, data is communicated by way of different types of communication networks that provide telephonic communications.
Networks of communication systems that provide for telephonic communications have been deployed throughout significant portions of the populated portions of the world. Users communicate telephonically through the use of telephonic, or other, communication stations that are connected to the networks. And, through appropriate interconnection of the separate networks, telephonic communications are carried out between sets of telephonic stations positioned at disparate locations by way of the interconnected, communications networks.
Circuit-switched communication techniques have historically been used by conventional telephonic networks. When circuit-switched communication techniques are used, circuit-switched connections are formed between the telephonic stations that are parties to a telephonic communication session. Dedicated, i.e., circuit-switched, channels are allocated to the telephonic stations by which to communicate the data therebetween. The dedicated connection is maintained irrespective of the amount, or regularity, of the communication of the data between the communication stations. As a result, the communication capacities of circuit-switched telephonic communication networks are relatively low as the maintenance of dedicated connections sometimes inefficiently utilizes the communication capacity of the telephonic communication network.
More recently, communication networks that make use of packet-switched communication techniques that provide for shared-channel communications have been deployed. Typically, packet-formatted data is communicated between communication stations that are connected to, or otherwise form part of, the communication network that provides for the packet-switched communications. Various packet formatting schemes have been developed and standardized. One protocol scheme, referred to as the Internet Protocol (IP), has achieved widespread acceptance and many communication devices have apparatus constructed to format and send, to receive, to transport, and to operate upon IP-formatted data.
Additionally, a series of operating specifications of the IEEE 802 family of communication standards defines operating protocols and procedures by which communication devices that comport with the requirements of the relevant IEEE standard 802 shall be operable to assure their operability in a communication network that operates pursuant to such standards. Amongst the protocol set forth in the operating specifications are authentication procedures and protocols. Authentication protocols are carried out to authenticate a communication device to access a communication network or to communicate with another communication device.
Many conventional personal computers regularly are constructed to be 802.1x compliant, capable, amongst other things, to be authenticated or perform authentications pursuant to the IEEE802.1x authentication procedures when connected to an IEEE802.1x enabled authentication port.
IP (Internet Protocol) phones, connectable to such communication networks, however, generally are not compliant with the IEEE802.1x protocols, particularly those relating to authentication procedures. A typical IP phone, therefore, cannot be authenticated using IEEE802.1x authentications. An IP phone and a personal computer that are co-located are conventionally required to be separately connected to separate access ports to a communication network. That is to say, conventionally, the IP phone, to be connected to the communication network, must be connected to a network access port different than an 802.1x enabled authentication port to which a personal computer is connectable.
If a manner could be provided by which to permit the IP phone and the personal computer to be connected to the same network access port, i.e., an 802.1x enabled authentication port, the conventional need to provide connections to the separate access ports would be obviated.
It is in light of this background information related to communication devices connectable to a communication network that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.